Today’s guest on Thinking Aloud, Johan Norberg, is an optimist. He has the unique ability to read past gloomy headlines, equipped with what he deems to be more than enough reason and data for hope. Humankind has actually made extraordinary progress, he maintains, on multiple fronts and in countless domains--progress by leaps and bounds in healthcare, the eradication of poverty, literacy, social justice, and technology.  In spite of all those foreboding headlines, things just aren’t as bad as you’d think.